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UNION LEAGUE 
^ ^ CLUB ^ ^ 






^^^^^^^^^^J!.^.^.^.^ 



Choate 
Banquet 



Friday Evening jfi 
February J7th, 1899 



SPEECHES delivered at the Banquet to 
Hon. JOSEPH H. CHOATE 

Ambassador to England 






UNION Ue^CrU^ 



O PEECHES DELIVERED AT THE 
^ BANQUET GIVEN TO Hon. 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE, ambassa- 
dor TO ENGLAND, AT THE 
UNION LEAGUE CLUB, NEW 
YORK, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 
1 7th, J899. ^^t^Ji^^^ji^^^ 



^ 



M 









Mr. Elihu Root, President of the Qub, Presided 
at the Banquet. 

At the concluszon of the banquet, Mr. Root said: 

G-ENTLEMEN : I ask you to join in drinking the 
health of the President of the United States. 

The toast was drunk standing, and followed by 
three cheers for the President of the United States. 

Me. Root : In view of the occasion which brings 
us together and all the sympathies that will go from 
this shore of the Atlantic to the other with our 
friend whom we meet to honor to-night, nothing can 
be so fitting as that now we join to the toast to the 
President of the United States, a toast to the health, 
long life and prosperous reign of the gracious lady 
to whom he will be accredited— Victoria, Queen of 
Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India. 

The toast was drunk standing, and followed by 
three cheers, and three cheers for Ambassador 
Choate. 

Mr. Root : Gentlemen of the Club and our 
guests : When Mr. Hay, the Ambassador from the 
United States to Great Britain, was recalled to take 
the office of Secretary of State and it became neces- 
sary to select a successor, there was every reason to 
be found in the rules governing the distribution of 
honor and emolument, for not selecting his succes- 
sor from the State of New York. A New Yorker, 
a former President of this Club, was discharging 
the difficult and delicate duties of Ambassador from 



the United States to the Republic of France. 
(Clieers.) Another New Yorker, an old and honored 
member of this Club, was discharging the equally 
difficult and delicate duties of Ambassador to the 
Empire of Germany. (Cheers.) Another New Yorker 
had but just received his passports and had ceased 
his residence as Minister to Spain. (Cheers.) And 
still another New Yorker had just been sent, for the 
second time, to be Minister to Turkey. (Clieers.) So 
that in accordance with all the rules that ordinarily 
govern such selections the remainder of this great 
country was entitled to consider that the last man 
to be selected as Ambassador to Great Britain to 
take the place of Mr. Hay should be a New Yorker. 
But there were conditions existing, there was a state 
of affairs patent to every intelligent man, which 
made it imperative that the President of the United 
States, in selecting a representative of the American 
people in the Court of England, should disregard 
all rules for the distribution of honor and of emolu- 
ment and should go through the length and breadth 
of America to lind the ablest and the best American 
(cheers), whatever his State, whatever his city, 
whatever his political claims might be ; the ablest 
and the best we liad to represent the American 
branch of the great Anglo-Saxon race at the birth- 
place of the race. (Cheers.) Yielding to the ini])er- 
itive demands of the conditions that confronted him, 
the Pi-esident came to this great city and selected 
our friend, not because he was a INew Yorker, but 
in spite of his being a New Yorker, and because he 



was what we know liim to be. (Applause.) This was 
not because of any of the ordinary requirements of 
diplomacy. It was not because there are an}^ un- 
settled questions between England and America of 
extreme difficulty. There was no occasion for vio- 
lating ordinary rules or taking especial pains in the 
selection of a lepresentative because of boundary 
difficulties, or fishery questions, or sealing questions, 
or reciprocity questions. It was not because there was 
danger of conflict between England and America. It 
was not because England needed help from America 
or America needed help from England, but it was 
because the events of the last few months have re- 
vealed to the vision of the people of England and Am- 
erica a newly-found relation between those peoples, 
and between each of them and the great movement of 
mankind which is changing the face of civilization 
and making an epoch in history. (Applause). It 
was because swiftly coming events of the i^ast year 
have revealed to our eyes, blind hitherto, the fact 
that during the past century, during our lifetime, a 
movement of civilized men has taken place more 
important in its character, more wide-spread in its 
effecc, more potent in its influence upon civilization, 
than any that has occurred since the downfall of 
the Roman Empire. (Applause.) The movement 
is of that great race which we call Anglo-Saxon, 
though it is not — a composite race : Saxon and 
Norman and Dane, Gaul and Celt and Teuton— a 
race called Anglo-Saxon, but composite with all 
these elements of strength ; a race largely directed 



in its impulses and its development by tlie initial 
conditions of the Anglo-Saxon race and the promi- 
nence of that element in its develojDment ; a race 
moulded by the practice of freedom, having as the 
cornerstone of its development individual liberty 
and individual right, ordered and controlled bylaw ; 
a race which has imposed upon itself as a limitation 
uj^on its own activity, its own passions and its own 
impulses, the eternal principles of human justice ; 
(applause) ; a race whose character has been devel- 
oi^ed upon both sides of the Atlantic by the influ- 
ences embodied in Magna Charta and the petition 
of rights and the bill of riglits and the habeas cor- 
pus act and the American declaration and the 
American Constitutions ; a race which has grown 
up in the practice of freedom and in obedience to 
law, energized by the struggle of centurit^s with 
nature, by adventure, by daring, by progress, by 
strenuous effort ; a race which has deep down, 
ingrown, inherited in every member of its family 
respect for human riglits, for human Justice, for 
law, for order, for liberty. The majestic progress 
of this new type of humanity, proceeding over the 
entire face of the habitable globe, has been revealed 
to us as one harmonious, united progress of all who 
answer to the type, whether English or American. 
(Applause.) Through that awakened vision we see 
that the isolated instances in which we have gloried 
are but part of a great whole. With Wolfe at 
Quebec and Clive in India, with Jefferson buying 
Louisiana and the Northwestern Territory, and 



Seward buying Alaska ; with the English trade fol- 
lowing the flag and whitening every sea and Ameri- 
can emigration swarming through the woods of 
Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan and over the 
prairies and up the mountains and down the Pacific 
Slope; with Kitchener at Omdurman and Dewey 
at Manila (applause)— are seen but incidents of the 
same great story of the progress of the ideas of jus- 
tice and liberty ; of the conception of human rights 
and the relations of man to man, which make the 
English and American type that w^e call Augio- 
Saxon, the dominant type of the earth to-day. 
(Applause.) This does not mean that England and 
America are not to compete ; that England and 
America are not to conflict ; that they are not to 
seek each to gain advantage over the other. It does 
not mean that America is to enter upon a career of 
conquest, but it does mean this— recognition upon 
both sides of the Atlantic that the type is the same, 
and that where the type goes every individual that 
answers to the type is the gainer ; that whether it 
be along the St. Lawrence or the Mississippi, Eng- 
land gains ; whether it be along the Nile or the 
Ganges, America gains. That wherever the ideas 
that answer to our type of civilization, the ideas 
embodied in the great fundamental statutes of Eng- 
land and America ; the ideas protected by the great 
guarantees of individual liberty and individual op- 
portunity that have made England and America 
great— wherever they go, whether it be under the 
meteor flag of England or the Stars and Stripes, 



every Englishman and every American is the gainer. 
(Applause.) And in the recognition of that great 
and basic fact of onr history, the recognition of that 
great and controlling idea in the progress of civil- 
ization in our generation, and the generations to 
come, it was fitting that the representative of the 
President of the United States to the Queen of 
Great Britain should be more than that — that he 
should be a representative of the people of the 
United States to the people of Great Britain. 
(Applause). That through him the best thought 
and purpose of our people should be represented to 
the best mind and heart of the other branch of our 
race. (Applause.) And our friend may go upon 
this great mission with assured confidence that the 
people whom he represents are worthy of him. Tliat 
the}^ are brave a thousand battle fields and twice 
ten thousand heroic deeds of valor and fortitude on 
sea and land attest. But they are not only brave. 
Tiiey are just ; they are law-abiding ; they are mag- 
nanimous. A people's ideals point the way of the 
I)eopIe's development, and the j^eople's idols em- 
body and illustrate their ideals, and it is a reassur- 
ing and a cheering thought that the men whom our 
countrymen hold closest to theii- hearts and highest 
in their hero-worship are great forgiving, jDatient, 
magnanimous men — Wasliington, Lincoln, and 
Grant. (Applause.) Let there be no fear in the 
heart of him who represents, for purposes of peace, 
a x^eople trained in self-restraint by long years of 
obedience to law ; a people who after the most ter- 



rible and bitter Civil War of history could present 
to mankind the unexampled spectacle that our 
country exhibits to-day, of North and Sontli united 
in genuine fraternal feeling and emulation in the 
support of a common country; of the people of New- 
York hailing the presence of Gen. Joseph Wheeler 
(applause.)— commanding American troops on the 
soil of New York, and the people of Atlanta laud- 
ing Major William McKinley to the skies as their 
chief magistrate. And he will be worthy of that 
great office. How well we know him. Others may 
tell of his learning and of the brilliant qualities that 
appeal to the multitude, but we know him as a man. 
He was but 41 years of age when we made him the 
President of this Club, and now, 67 years have left 
his eye bright and his locks brown, thank Heaven. 
And during all that time we have known him, his 
going out and his coming in day by day. We can 
speak to each other of those qualities that the great 
country knows little of. We know the purity of 
his character. We know that bright, happy, cheer- 
ful disposition that never fails to make the whole 
place brighter and all about him happier wherever 
he is. We know how active and broad his charity 
has been ; his labors for education, for all good and 
benevolent causes in our community. We know 
how steadfast and enduring is his friendship ; not 
perhaps the friendship of much clinking of glasses, 
of boisterous conviviality, but the deep and endur- 
ing friendship which answers to all drafts of a 
friend, always a present help in time of trouble and 



always steadfast and true. For my own part to the 
end of my life I shall deem it one of the happiest 
gifts of fortune that during many years of intimate 
association, sometimes allied and sometimes in con- 
flict, I may be permitted after it all and through it 
all to call him friend. I know that we all feel tliat ; 
that we all feel honored in his honor ; that we all 
feel proud that our beloved country is to be repre- 
sented in the most jiowerful Court of Europe by an 
American who measures up to the full stature of 
the greatest of Englishmen and who is our friend. 
(Applause). 

And so we meet him here to bid him farewell 
and God speed, happy days, prosperous career, 
great achievements, fitting the achievements of his 
past, a happy home-coming to meet the friends and 
the hearty greetings that he will find when he comes. 
Join me in the health of the new Ambassador. 
(Prolonged cheers.) 



SPEECH OF MR. CHOATE. 

Mr. Root ; gentlemen, friends of a lifetime : For 
the first time since I learned to speak the English 
language, which is henceforth to be the language 
of the world, I am at a loss for words (applause 
and laughter.) To receive such an honor as this 
from such men as these, who have seen me going to 
and fro and walking up and down in this city any 
time for the last forty years, is indeed the crowning 
honor of my life. And when I look around these 
tables and see the men whom I have labored with 
in almost every cause to which this Club has been 
devoted since its organization ; when I see them 
headed by such old heroes as Charles L. Tiffany 
and LeGrand B. Cannon— (applause) — I confess 
that lam absolutely overwhelmed by the honor that 
you have sought to do me. (Applause.) 

You will not expect me, harassed and overcome 

by the thousand duties that press upon me in these 

few last days before my departure to have prepared 

anything like a formal farewell address that might, 

perhaps, be more fitting to an occasion like this ; 

and so I am sure that you will indulge me if for 

this once I rely almost entirely upon spontaneous 

combustion. (Laughter.) But how could I fail to 

respond with all my heart to such a splendid 

^^^onstration of friendship and good will as is pre- 

^^Hted here to-night ? Here have I been engaged in 

^^nhe activities of life for so many decades, too often 

in vigorous and earnest combat, and yet I find here 

to-night my oldest friends and my dearest foes 



uniting to bid me a God speed and safe return. 
Tbere are no friends like the old friends ; there 
are no faces like the old faces, and I assure you 
if I had known how hard it was to sever the 
ties that bind me to New York and to America, I 
should really have insisted upon spending tlie re- 
mainder of my days at home. I hope — I expect to 
make many new friends, many worthy and valuable 
friends upon the other side of the water, but how 
can they for one moment make good the place of 
these ? No, gentlemen ; all the honors of life, all 
its prizes, all its treasures, all its rewards are not, in 
my judgment, to be compared with the good will 
and the good opinion of the men who have known 
me and walked side by side with me all my life. 
(Applause.) And then that such an event as this, 
in my honor, should take place in this building ! 
That this Club, with which so many of the happiest 
and noblest hours of my life have been identified 
should furnish forth a host of friends like these ! 
What memoiies the very name of this association 
calls up! What a school it has been for an Am- 
bassador who shall represent the real America in 
any country of the world ! (Ajoplause.) A school 
of unconditional loyalty from the beginning. A 
school of earnest patriotism. A school lor the eleva- 
tion of all that is good and great in the social | 
political life of America. (Good. Good.) My m 
goes back to a very early day in the history of this 
Club, and many of these who are seated at these 
tables go back with me to recall what noble causes 




have here been espoused ; what great things have been 
attempted at least, that should make America 
greater and better than it was before. I recall the 
struggle in whicli it took such an earnest part when 
the first shot at Fort Sumter aroused the indigna- 
tion of the North to the defense of the beleaguered 
capitol at Washington and the imperiled existence 
of the country itself. How earnest they were ! How 
devoted and untiring in the support of the Govern- 
ment from the beginning to the end of that great 
cause ! I recollect what they have done from first 
to last since 1863 throughout this Club's existence, 
for the elevation of the public service and the public 
morals. How Civil Service Reform, of w^hich the most 
illustrious advocate sits here on my right [Governor 
Roosevelt], found here its advocates and supporters. 
How the cause of sound money has never once ap- 
pealed to it in vain. (Applause.) How, w^ien the 
flag of the country was in danger, a rally to its sup- 
port always found a centre here. And so I flatter 
myself that having been trained here and shared in 
your labors and your efforts for the public good, I 
have had a thorough schooling as a real American, 
and to say no more of myself I will make you just 
one promise, that I will return at the end of my 
sojourn as good an American as I go away. (Pro- 
• longed applause.) 

_ ^ . Now I am not willing to appropriate to myself 

' 'much, if any, of my brother Root's most flattering 

words. That they should flow from his lips— the 

lips of a friend who has been very dear to me for a 



quarter of a century — is most encouraging ; but I 
know perfectly well that a life spent in forensic 
struggle is a wholly inadequate preparation for 
diplomatic service. (Laughter.) I shall have to 
rely on some other qualities than those which I have 
developed in the practice of the law if I am to suc- 
ceed in this new employment. (Laughter.) I shall 
rely upon a happy temperament, worth millions to 
any man (laughter and applause) ; on unfailing good 
nature, which no discussion can ruffle (laughter) ; 
ui^on honest intentions ; upon plain dealing and 
true speaking, conscious all the time of the great 
dignit}^ and the rare interests of the country that I 
represent ; paying just regard always to those of 
that great country to which I am accredited, and 
then, if I fail, it will not be because I have any 
doubt of the encouragement and the good will and 
support of you and of all my countrymen. (Pro- 
longed applause.) 

I believe that never before since the people of 
the United States ordained our great Constitution 
to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to 
provide for the common defense, to promote the 
general welfare and to secure the blessings of liberty 
to themselves and their children, did they send any 
representative abroad who had greater cause to be 
proud of his own country, or who was sure to receive 
a more hearty and cordial welcome and greeting for its 
sake from the country to which he is sent, than now 
(applause); and that will be a welcome not merely from 
the English Government but also from the English 



people. I believe, from all that I have ever read or 
heard, that the English people have never at any- 
time been in the least hostile to the people of Amer- 
ica. (Applause.) God has made of one blood these 
two mighty nations. Their common origin, common 
language and common literature, the English Bible, 
and the Common Law have bound their hearts 
together in a union which no rivalry of interests, no 
exigencies of politics, no blunders of government on 
either side, have ever x)ermanently im^Daired. (Ap- 
plause.) 

And one thing more I wantto say, which I believe 
from the bottom of my heart to be an absolute truth, 
and that is that in that august and venerable woman 
who, after more than sixty years of sovereignty, 
still reigns supreme in the hearts of her people, 
America, from the beginning, has found a steadfast 
and a faithful friend. (Applause.) 

Now, it is true, as my brother Root has intimated, 
that this fast and earnest friendshiij which has found 
and is iinding every day such abundant exi)ression 
on both sides of the Atlantic, is not going to change 
the course of human events or of human nature. 
It will not make water run uj) hill alter all. We 
shall still have our rival interests. It cannot but be 
that the rivalry will be intense, and sometimes pos- 
sibly bitter ; but this we do believe, by reason of 
this well-spring of friendship which has grown up 
so steadfastly of late, that we shall contend as 
friendly rivals, and that all our differences hereafter 
will be settled by peaceful negotiation and friendly 



arbitration, and never once again by any resort to 
arms. (Applause.) 

Now there is one interest of the United States 
of America which, in my judgment, is paramount to 
any other and all others combined, and that interest 
is the x)reservation of i^eace. (Cries of "Good! 
Good !") I mean not peace at any price, but peace 
always when it can be preserved with honor. (Cries 
of " Good ! Good !") Not peace with one nation only, 
but with all the nations, great and small, of all the 
earth. (Api^lause.) And after all, with this dear 
mother country of ours — or, as I prefer to call her 
and regard her, this elder sister of ours — our friend- 
ship should only be a little more close and a little 
more binding than that whicli has existed, and 
still exists, between us and other great nations. 
(Cries of " Good ! Good ! ") Can America ever for- 
get, for instance, how steadfast, how unfailing, 
has been the friendship which Russia has shown 
and manifested for this country (applause) for more 
than a century now? Can w« ever forget that un- 
dying debt of gratitude and obligation which we owe 
to our sister republic of France ? (Cries of " Good ! 
Good ! ") France, without whose aid this infant re- 
public, at least in that century, could hardly have 
come to bean indei)endent nation, (Applause). Can 
anything tear out from the veins of that composite 
creature, the modern and typical Anieiican who oc- 
cupies the great basin between the Alleghanies and 
the llocky Mountains and who rules and controls 
this country and this continent; can anything tear 



out from Ms veins that Teutonic strain whicli binds 
us to Germany and makes us, as a people, so near of 
kin to that mighty nation? (Applause). And, yet, 
for all that, we mean to cultivate by all means in 
our power this friendship, this tie of brotherhood 
and fraternity, and of common family that exists 
between us and England. And with what hope? 
Why, as our rival interests shall be settled between 
us, peacefully, amicably, honorably, so when the 
identity and unity of our interests leads our two 
nations to work together, our common action shall 
always tend to promote and fortify peace, justice, 
liberty and civilization all the world around. (Ap- 
plause.) 

And now, why should an American feel prouder 
of his country to-day than he ever felt before ? For 
I like to carry that as my greatest and sweetest pos- 
session in my heart as I cross the water. (Applause.) 
There are men still living and within the sound of 
my voice, men whose personal recollection and per- 
sonal action— there are several of them sitting be- 
fore me— go back and form a part of the history of 
the country for a full half-century. And what has 
not America achieved within that period, brief in 
the life of any nation 1 I do not suppose that ever 
yet in all history there was such progress made by 
any people as ours have made in that brief space of 
time. There are men sitting here who have taken 
part in that great material development by which a 
little score of States upon the Atlantic coast, hardly 
extending half-way to the Mississippi, have in that 



short period, filled and conquered the continent and 
made the world listen to the busy hum of industry 
in the homes of seventy millions of people. There 
never was, I believe, such progress made before in 
anj?- time or in any clime. And then such gigantic 
strides as we have made, often apparently the result 
of wars which were deprecated, dreaded, opposed 
with the most honest motive by the most patriotic 
citizens of the country. Some of these gentlemen 
remember, as I am old enough to remember, the 
outbreak of the Mexican War. I sat at the feet of 
Gamaliel and learned how much to be regretted it 
was, but it came. By tlie will of the people it was 
fought, and by the Providence that reigned over 
this country, it resulted, as you all know, in the 
immense develo^Dment, the immense aggrandizement 
and enrichment of the whole countrj^ The admis- 
sion of California, all the wealth and new energy 
and enterprise that followed upon that were grent 
and invaluable blessings to this country. And then 
the Civil War, which seemed at the outset to 
be absolutely destructive for the time being of 
all prosperity, and almost of the hope of our 
national existence, resulted in the creation of a 
new America, with new enterprise, new energy, 
new life, bringing the redemption not oiily of the 
South but of the North and the inspiration of a 
mighty people who had not realized their strengtli 
before. And then in this last twelve months 
what has not been acliieved 't J will not enter upon 
any eulogy upon any person, ui)on any ofUciai, 



civil or military, but I call to your attention tte 
great things that have been accomplished in this 
short period of time. In the first place the restora- 
tion of universal prosperity throughout the length 
and breadth of the land. (Applause.) This banquet 
could almost be accepted as an illustration of the 
prosperity that now smiles upon our people. (Laugh- 
ter). The public credit, vi^hich only three or four 
years ago was wavering, has been established and 
seems now to command the confidence not only of 
our own people, but of every other people in the 
world. (Applause.) And then, too, a great work 
of humanity has been accomplished in the extinc- 
tion over every foot of American soil of the last 
vestige of Spanish power and Spanish oppres- 
sion— (applause)— brought to a culmination only 
the last few days by the ratification of the Treaty 
of Peace which one of the Commissioners now 
present had such a great hand in framing. (Ap- 
plause.) But more than all this the people of the 
United States have become united as they have 
never been united before, in support of the institu- 
tions, the glory and the interests of their common 
country. And still better than that, to go back to 
the very point at which I began, the achievements 
of our army and our navy have developed a prowess 
and a vigor that has not only commanded the re- 
spect but the apprehension of other nations— (ap- 
plause)— and I believe it to be absolutely true that 
at this moment our country is on better terms with 
every other nation in the world than she has ever 



been before. (Applause.) And best of all, the fruit 
of this war that has come so speedily and so happily 
to an end, is the restoration of that absolute confi- 
dence and abiding good will which exists, and I be- 
lieve always has existed, but now flames forth more 
strongly than ever before, between us and all the 
English speaking peoples of the Globe. (Applause.) 

Now, gentlemen, perhaps I have expressed my 
sentiments quite as fully and freely as my official 
restrictions permit. I know how soon I shall be 
absolutely tongue-tied, and so let me say that to- 
night I speak for myself alone, but I want before I 
take my seat again to thank you for this most cor- 
dial greeting, this most affectionate farewell with 
which you have honored me to-night. How shall I 
reciprocate it ? Will you not all, each, individually 
and collectively, visit me at my new home ? I assure 
you that the latch string will be always out. I may 
not have extra plates enough every day to entertain 
you all, bui in the course of the few years of my 
pilgrimage I shall hope to receive each of you 
under my roof. (Prolonged ax:)plause.) 

Tlie President called for three cheers for Am- 
bassador Choate, which were given. 

Mil. Root : Gentlemen : I give you the health, 
the prosperity of the administration Avliich sends 
Mr. Choate as Ambassador to England, and with 
that toast T couj^le the name of the Attorney-General 
of the United States. (Applause.) 



SPEECH OF ATT'Y-GEN'L GRIGGS. 

Mr. President, and fellow-members of the Union 
League Clnb: I came here desiring to be dis-associated 
from my official relations in order that I might join 
with yon, my brethren, in congratulating our honored 
guest upon the distinguished service to which he is to 
be sent and in wishing him God speed. I desired to 
come also as a member of the profession to which he 
belongs, whose members as you all know, however 
belligerent they may appear in the forensic field, and 
however savagely they may attack each other, can 
always walk together arm in arm from the court 
room and provoke the suspicions of their clients as 
to their true allegiance— (laughter)— a profession of 
whose members it has been said, " They work hard, 
they live well and they die poor." This particular 
member, as you know, has in his profession worked 
hard, and since he has dined with the Union League 
Club you know he has lived well, and if we all go 
to the Court of St. James and visit him, as he has 
invited us to do, considering the amount of salary 
the United States pays, he will probably die poor. 
(Laughter and applause.) He goes to one of the 
oldest established civilized governments upon the 
face of the earth ; a government that was old before 
we began to be ; which had spent millions on mil- 
lions of dollars in building up and improving itself 
and its institutions before Ave began to provide the 
necessaries of life for our own national household. 
Until recently the United States has had all she 
could do to take care of herself. In the early days 



it was a struggle to stand firmly on her feet. Con- 
sider the contrast between tlie day when John 
Adams went, tlie first accredited Minister of the 
New Republic to his former sovereign, King George, 
and to-day, when this honored member of this Club 
goes from this nation of seventy million people to 
our great, friendly sister nation across the water. 
When sturdy John Adams met the King and ad- 
dressed him, in his introduction he said to him that 
he desired above all things to bring about a restora- 
tion of the kindly sentiments that should prevail 
between two such i3eopIes ; a restoration in a word 
of the old good humor that should prevail between 
peoples that had the same language, the same relig- 
ion and kindred blood. Many years passed before 
that generous wish was fulfilled, but to-day it has 
been fulfilled and that same good humor that he 
desired and labored and prayed for does prevail be- 
tween these peoples. (Applause.) 

When somebody asked Lord Wellington what 
were the peculiar characteristics of the soldiers that 
composed his army on the Peninsula he said, 
" Well, the English are most interested when there 
is a plentiful supply of beef, and the Irish are the 
hajDpiest when we are in a country where the vine 
grows, and the Scotch are the most delighted when 
the paymaster comes." Now, our friend goes from 
a country whose citizens and wiiose soldiers 
recognize and rt^joice in all three of these charac- 
teristics. (Laughter.) It is a greater country than it 
was even when our last Ambassador was accredited 



to the Court of St. James. Some one asked a man 
whom he met with his dinner pail, if he worked 
hard, and he said he did and the hours were too 
long. " Why," said he, "sometimes I work so long 
tliat when I go home at night I meet myself going 
to work in the morning"; and so now our friend 
goes as the representative of a country — Uncle 
Sam's country — as to which it may be said tliat 
when Uncle Sam is starting out, by way of the Suez 
Canal, for his Pacific possessions, he may meet him- 
self coming back the other way. (Laughter and 
applause.) 

But, my friends, it is not only as Mr. Choate 
said, with Great Britain that we are friends 
and at peace and good will, but we aim to be at 
peace and at good will with all mankind. The 
United States is not, and it never has been, a nation 
that desired to become the aggressor upon or the 
oppressor of any people. (Applause.) They have 
possessed the spirit of liberators, not the spirit of 
oppressors. They have not boasted that they have 
subdued mankind, but rather that they have raised 
mankind up. If there is any characteristic of this 
people that distinguishes it, it is its generosity, its 
benevolence, its good will. What people in suffer- 
ing or distress has not experienced the generosity 
of the American citizen, the American merchant and 
the American individual in contributions for their 
relief? Has it been the yellow fever sufferer ? Has 
it been the famine stricken friends of ours in the 
Green Isle? Has it been the murdered Christians of 



Armenia ? Has there been any people on the face of 
the earth where the hand of the oppressor has been 
hard, or where misery and misfortune have come, 
that the substantial sympath}^ of America has not 
gone in generous relief 'i (Applause.) And so, my 
friends, the generous people of this country believe 
that now, in these days, and under these circum- 
stances, they are going forward, not to oppress, not 
to destroy, but to relieve, to strengthen and to build 
up. (Cries of " Good ! Good !") They have no desire 
for an expansion of territory that shall be unprin- 
cipled, or purely selfish. If any one thinks that 
the American people are not actuated by the high- 
est aims, he can get no support for that doctrine 
from any nation on the face of the earth. Those 
who say it must be men of our nation and of our 
own people. That which we have done, that which 
we have taken, we have done and taken with the 
consent, with the substantial approval of the nations 
of the earth, not one of whom has dared to chal- 
lenge our right. (Applause.) What has been done 
has been done ; whether it has been irresistible des- 
tiny or wbatever it has been, it is accomplished, 
and what, in the face of that, is the duty of loyal 
Americans ? You remember the old toast of the old 
American Commodore: "Our country; may she 
always be right, but right or wrong, our country"! 
(Applause.) But I know of a liner and nobler ex- 
pression of that sentiment that is ajDpropriate to- 
day. It was uttered by that great lawyer, that 
great orator, that great statesman, who was the 



kinsman of our honored guest to-night. It was 
uttered forty years ago when he was speaking of that 
great American statesman and expounder of the 
Constitution, Daniel Webster, and of him, Rufus 
Choate said : " He did not favor a premature and 
unprincipled extension of territory, but he saw, and 
he rejoiced to see, if America continued just, and 
continued brave, and the Union lasted, how widely — 
to what tropic and pacilic seas — she must spread ; 
but when the annexation was made, when the line 
was drawn, when the treaty was signed, then he 
went for her however butted and bounded. Then 
he stood steadfast by the compact of annexation 
and there was no line so remote, no spot so distant, 
that he would not plant upon it the ensign all- 
radiant, that no foreign aggression might come." 
This was, said he, "The very Websterianism of 
Webster," and that should be to-day the very 
Americanism of Americans. (Applause.) Who has 
doubt of the ability of this nation to deal with 
any problem that it may undertake when it 
can call to its service from the ranks of this 
Club a gentleman so able, so distinguished, so 
capable as our friend, who has attained the age 
of 67 years without having hitherto given his 
country the benefit of his official service? Does 
it not illustrate that we have tens of thousands of 
men of ability in this country that we can call upon 
if we want? Who are those that are managing the 
finances, the businesses, the railroads, the factories 
of this country, except the very foremost men of 



ability and of administration ? (Applause.) We 
do not mean, we Americans, tliat these questions 
sliall be submitted merely to those who desire per- 
sonal advantage from them, but I am proud to be- 
lieve — and I consider it an insult to America for 
anybody to assert the contrary — that her people 
desire to have the best ability, the most patriotic 
service, that kind of service which they can obtain 
in their own great enterprises, brought to bear upon 
these new problems, that out of them may work 
not only new glory for our country, but new pros- 
perity for ourselves and for all those peoples whom 
we sliall reach. (Applause.) 

My friends, I am not fearful of the old ship of 
State. She is sailing steadily on as she has ever 
sailed. She has a good sound hull beneath her; she 
has triple expansion engines ; she has a crew of 
American blocd that are generous, benevolent, 
kindly, but whose aim is very deadly ! (Cries of 
"Good ! Good !") We do not desire to humiliate those 
that oppose us. We only desire that they shall 
cease to oppose. We have not sought the sword of 
our conquered enemy. Grant refused to take Lee's, 
And Bob Evans to take Cervera' s. And on this ship 
of State ther(i is a pilot ; clear-eyed, looking for- 
ward only for the beacon lights of truth, steadfast 
of purpose, with a brave heart, a courageous soul, 
and a hox)eful spirit. Some of the passengers I ad- 
mit, the vessel having reached rough waters, are a 
little seasick ; they do not want to iiiiish the v^oy- 
ago ; they want the vessel to put about and turn 



back to harbor and moor up to the wliarf ; but, my 
friends, yon know tliat the fears and perturbations 
of a seasick soul, lest the ship shall sink, never 
made any sensible captain turn back to port. 
(Laughter and applause.) 

And so I bid our new Ambassador God speed. 
He goes as the representative of a greater country 
than any Ambassador ever carried the credentials 
of to the Court of St. James before. (Applause.) 
Some centuries ago that magnificent old English- 
man, Sir Francis Drake, while he lay in hiding on 
the Isthmus of Panama waiting for the tinkle of 
the mule bell that should reveal to him the coming 
of the Spanish treasure train, climbed a tree — a tall 
tree — from which he looked out, and beyond him 
sgw the mysterious expanse of the Pacific, and his 
heart was fired with the desire to sail there and 
attach for his King the land that he Ivuew must lie 
beyond ; and he descended and knelt at the foot of 
the tree — this reverent old pirate (laughter) — and 
he promised the Almighty that he would ever serve 
Him if he might be allowed to live long enough to 
sail into that mysterious sea, across those expansive 
stretches of water where Drake saw and still lie the 
new possessions of America. But no longer do we 
need the slow white wings of the old English 
frigates to get there ; to-day the Congress of 
the United States is considering a proposition to 
unite those distant islands with this continent by 
the nerves of the electric cable. Consider the differ- 
ence, my friends, and remember then that as we 



stand now at the utmost verge of the 19th century, 
America says to the world and to all the people of 
the world, we are trying, striving, working to ad- 
vance the welfare of the human race. We invite 
the co-operation, we will gladly join in co-operation 
as one nation may with others, in this grand work. 
For selfish aggrandizement, nothing, but for hu- 
manity, for civilization, everything. (Applause.) 

Mr. Root : Gentlemen ; I am going to give you 
a toast to the people of the country to which Mr. 
Choate is accredited, and to ask to respond to that 
toast a native of that country who is as good an 
American as ever trod the soil on this side of the 
Atlantic. To the people of Great Britain. And 
with that I couple the name of the Hon. William 
Bourke Cockran. (Applause and three cheers for 
Bourke Cockran.) 



SPEECH OF MR. COCKRAN. 

Gentlemen of the Union League Club, I am 
deeply indebted to your historic organization for the 
hospitality which has enabled me to join in this 
banquet, than which a higher compliment has sel- 
dom been offered to a citizen. Its cordiality, the 
characters of the men participating in it, the warm 
affection displayed for the guest of honor, all com- 
bine to make it a tribute so impressive that, of itself, 
it would be a substantial crown to a successful 
career. (Applause.) 

I think we all may find in Mr. Choate's appoint- 
ment a two-fold source of congratulation. It tends 
to refute the statement so often made that our 
domestic politics are hopelessly corrupt, while it 
affords every reason to believe that our interna- 
tional consequence will be sustained and promoted. 
It would be useless to deny that many good 
citizens have come to regard political organizations 
as mere engines of corruption. If this be true, the 
end of the Republic is in sight. If both our politi- 
cal parties, embracing as they do a vast majority of 
our citizens, be hopelessly sunk in servility, corrup- 
tion, and degradation, the government which rests 
upon them must itself be so corrupt as to render it 
a menace to property, and a government which re- 
stricts industry by endangering its fruits has already 
entered upon the pathway to destruction. 

The selection of Mr. Choate for one of the most 
conspicuous places in the public service is a strik- 
ing proof that our political conditions are neither 



abject nor desperate. A stream cannot rise higher 
than its source. Good cannot liow from evil. An ap- 
pointment made with the active support of a party 
organization could scarcely be of such a character 
as to command the approval of the patriotic and the 
intelligent if that organization itself were a fountain 
of corruption. (Applause.) 

Do not, my friends, believe for a moment that I 
am eulogizing the management of our parties. To 
recognize the hopeful features of any condition is 
not to condone, tolerate, or approve its objection- 
able features, but rather to measure the resources 
available for its improvement. The citizen who pre- 
fers to labor for the amelioration of our politics 
rather than waste his energies in deploring their 
shortcomings must find a source of encouragement 
in the fact tliat a party manager — a boss — call him 
what you will — has been able to support for higli 
public office the conspicuous exemplar of jDrofes- 
sional ability and civic virtue without endangering 
or weakening his leadership. 

While Mr. Choate's appointment should be 
especially cheering to those whose gloomj^ views of 
our politics have ledtbem to despair of the republic, 
it must be a source of profound satisfaction to citi- 
zens of every party and condition, for all of them 
believe that liis duties will be discharged with 
credit to himself, honor to his government and ad- 
vantage to the people of both countries. 

Of course, a discussion of Mr. Choate's embassy 
would disappoint the expectations of his andience 



if it omitted reference to its most important aspect. 
Whatever may be its immediate effect on himself, 
we all hope and believe that its permanent fruit will 
be an improvement in the relations between the 
people of Great Britain and this country. (Ap- 
plause.) In this respect, I believe his apj)ointment 
is the very best that could have been made. (Ap- 
plause.) If any proof were needed that Mr. Choate's 
mission will be an effective force to promote the 
co-operation of both countries in every laudable 
purpose for which nations can unite with profit, he 
himself has furnished it in his admirable speech 
this evening. (Applause,) 

Like my friend, Mr. Root, who has discussed 
this mission Avith the eloquence of a statesman and 
the warmth of a friend, I prefer to regard Mr. 
Choate as a representative from one branch of the 
Anglo-Saxon race to another, rather than to inter- 
j)ret his commission according to the technical lan- 
guage accrediting him to a Court or to a Govern- 
ment. What is this race to which, as he says, we 
persist in believing Mr. Choate's mission is really 
directed, no matter what may be the language of his 
formal credentials ? Mr. Root tells us that the word 
Anglo-Saxon is a misnomer, because it is applied to 
a race composed of the English, the Celt and the 
American. I do not believe that the word is a mis- 
nomer so far as it is descriptive of the English peo- 
ple, Avhile I think it is utterly misleading when ap- 
plied to the English Government. The race whose 
valor in war and genius in peace have reflected on 



England a glory which encircles the world is not 
the race which dominates the Government of Eng- 
land. The English people are Anglo-Saxon ; the 
English governing class is Norman. I do not be- 
lieve we can understand England's position in the 
world unless we realize as Mr. Choate must realize, 
from his familiarity with English jurisprudence, 
that the Norman, while he has disappeared from 
every other country through which he passed fight- 
ing, pillaging, conquering, still maintains his iden- 
tity in England. And as the Anglo-Norman has 
preserved all his racial characteristics, so also has 
the Anglo-Saxon. The Norman has never relin- 
quished his hold on the throne established on the 
field of Hastings ; the Anglo-Saxon has never ceased 
to defend that ancient common law which has been 
through all ages the impregnable rampart of free- 
dom. To this day the Norman is as adventurous 
and as masterful as ever he was, while the Anglo- 
Saxon is still as industrious and devoted to liberty 
as he was in the days of the good King Edward. 

The whole history of England for eight centuries 
is a Jiistoiy of the struggle between the English 
people to maintain Anglo-Saxon law and Anglo- 
Saxon lil)erty against the oppressive institutions of 
feudalism fastened upon them for a while by suc- 
cessful foreign invasion. The irrepressible hostility 
between these races has been fought out on English 
soil, and there the si)irit of Anglo-Saxun liberty 
has triumphed over the Norman spirit of personal 
dominion. 



The Norman has always shown himself an 
effective force for foreign conquest, while the Anglo- 
Saxon, slower to take up arms, has proved himself 
the better soldier when the field of contest was his 
own soil, and the stake of battle the liberties of his 
country. (Applause.) 

The Norman, compelled to respect liberty and 
tolerate freedom within the limits of England, has 
yet been able to embark the English people in 
schemes to establish beyond the sea institutions of 
government which would not be tolerated upon Eng- 
lish soil. This explains what to many is incompre- 
hensible — the fact that English rule bears such 
widely different fruits in different places — in some 
quarters proving itself salutary, beneficent, popular, 
and in others opjDressive, sanguinary, and execrated. 

The Norman has never crossed the sea except 
to engage in schemes of military adventure ; the 
Anglo-Saxon never leaves his native land except to 
establish a home where he will cultivate the fields 
and raise a family in the fear of Grod and the love 
of liberty. (Applause.) 

Wherever we find England engaged in schemes 
of conquest, pillage or violence, there the Norman 
spirit of adventure is active. Wherever we find 
self-governing, self-respecting communities speak- 
ing the English tongue, maintaining the English 
law, there we find the Anglo-Saxon spirit of justice 
bearing fruits of freedom, morality and progress. 
(Applause.) 



English, history may be described as a compro- 
mise between the opposing influences of the Norman 
and the Anglo-Saxon upon fclie destinies of England. 
The things which have made England glorious and 
respected are the fruits of Anglo-Saxon influence, 
the policies which have made her hated, feared, and 
distrusted are the i^roducts of Norman violence and 
aggression. 

Wherever English authority is exercised to 
maintain the English law, there the authority of 
the English crown rests, not on force, but on affec- 
tion — there the English flag is cherished by loyal 
hearts which would freely bleed in defense of it. 
Wherever England's military power has been used 
to establish a government not intended to maintain 
English law, but to violate it, there her moral 
weight has been discredited, there her authority is 
maintained solely by arms, sometimes against resist- 
ance, always in the teeth of an ever-deepening and 
and ever-darkening hatred. 

The Norman has contributed some pages to his- 
tory which Englishmen read with pride, but the 
whole world is enriched by the enduring contribu- 
tions of the Anglo-Saxon to the progress of civili- 
zation. Crecy, Poictiers, Agincourt, the victories 
in the Low Countries, were tlie fruits of Norman 
valor. The literature of Shakespeare, the philosophy 
of Bacon, the law of Coke, of Hale and of Black- 
stone — that law which is at once the pride and the 
hope of the human race, the light of progiess, the 
shield of liberty, the rami^art of order, the fountain 



of our own constitutional system, the vital principle 
of free institutions everywhere — are the fruits of 
Anglo-Saxon virtue and of Anglo-Saxon genius. 

History does not record an instance of violence 
by the Anglo-Saxon except where he was persuaded 
that it was necessary to draw the sword for the de- 
fense of justice or the vindication of liberty. To 
rouse the Norman to warlike activity it was never 
necessary to persuade liim of anything except tbat 
there was a good prospect for a fight. (Laughter.) 

It is often said that among the masses of the 
American people there has been a rooted dislike of 
England. I believe this to be a misconception. 
The English masses have never given us cause of dis- 
like and we have never cherished any hostility to 
them. The English classes have often shown them- 
selves distrustful of us, and we have returned the 
feeling. The oppressive measures which provoked 
the American Revolution did not proceed from the 
English people, but from the English court and 
the English throne. The American Republic is it- 
self the triumphant fruit of Anglo-Saxon jurispru- 
dence. Our Revolution was not an uprising against 
the English jurisinnidence, but a movement in de- 
fense of it. It did not overturn the English law in 
America, but it drove out of this country the Eng- 
lish officials who had attempted to overturn it. The 
first fruit of our Revolution was to make tbat an- 
cient common law the birthright of every American 
citizen. The first amendment of our Constitution 
was the adoption, word for word, of the Bill of 



Rights — that Bill of Rights established by the 
English yeomen and the English commoner against 
the fierce resistance of the Norman cavalier and 
Norman court — that Bill of Rights which marked 
the triumph of liberty in England at the close of 
the 17th Century, after a struggle of six hundred 
years — established forever on this side of the 
Atlantic at the close of the 18th century. 

Between two countries, united by the ties of a 
common tongue and a common jurisprudenee, an 
alliance is natural and advisable. Now, what must 
be the basis of such an alliance ? Between two such 
nations there is but one basis possible, and that is 
Justice. Not all the treaties in the world, whatever 
their provisions, could enlist this peoj^le in schemes 
of aggression and conquest ; no treaty is necessary 
to insure their co-operation in any undertaking 
which makes for the uplifting of the human race 
by the spread of that Jurisprudence which has 
shown itself the most effective means of establish- 
ing Justice. 

Mr. Choate has said to-night with great truth 
that rivalries between the two countries are inevitable. 
Such rivalries, indeed, must exist, but they will be 
rivalries of commerce, rivalries to promote the 
progress of civilization and the improvement of the 
human race. Pray God these two countries shall 
never again draw the sword against each other or 
against any other people to further schemes of con- 
quest or oppression. (Applause.) 



We need no treaty to enlist the people of this 
country in support of the jurisprudence which is 
the vital principle of this rej)ublic. Mr. Choate will 
not have spent many days in England before he 
will realize that there is a keener aj)preciation in 
this country of the things that constitute England's 
real glory than he will find in London. Nowhere, 
indeed, are the sources of England's greatness less 
understood than in the English court and the Lon- 
don drawing-rooms. 

The Queen's Jubilee, two years ago, was one of 
the greatest pageants that ever occurred in the Eng- 
lish metropolis. It was a festival graced by the 
presence of the distinguished gentleman sitting 
here upon my right [Mr. Whitelaw Reid], as Spe- 
cial Ambassador of the United States. Yet that 
pageant embraced no representatives of those 
English institutions which everywhere receive the 
sincere compliment of imitation. It comprised 
representatives of every element that constituted 
the empire's military strength. There were soldiers 
resplendent in uniforms of every color. In the 
ranks were armed men whose skins vvere of differ- 
ent hues. Every quarter of the globe contributed 
to its splendor some display of naval or militarj^ 
power, but from one end of that procession to the 
other there was not an author to represent the 
stately literature which forms the chief intellectual 
treasure of the haman race ; not a judge to repre- 
sent the jurisprudence which is the shield of Eng- 
lish liberty ; not a member of either House of Par- 



liament to represent tlie constitutional system 
which is England's security and her safety. Eng- 
land's greatness does not rest upon her arms or 
upon possessions. Her strength and her glory are 
her system of representative government and her 
ancient common law. No country cares to model 
its military establishment on that of England. 
Every country which is striving to reach prosperity 
through the protection of free institutions seeks to 
make its civil government conform to England's 
constitutional system. The Ambassador to whom 
we wish God speed to-night, himself the orna- 
ment and exi)onent of that common law which, 
transplanted to this soil, has here achieved its most 
stately growtli, by every word that may fall from 
his lips, by the whole lesson of his life and charac- 
ter, will promote and encourage love, respect, and 
api)reciation for the civilizing influences of Anglo- 
Saxon jurisprudence and Anglo-Saxon freedom. 
(Applause.) 

Thus will he encourage an alliance between 
these two countries that will be enduring, because 
it will be beneficial ; an alliance that will not be for 
the selfish interests of the classes, but for the com- 
mon interests of the masses ; an alliance not resting 
upon the intrigues of the drawing-rooms, but on the 
consciences of all the peo^jle on both sides of the 
Atlantic ; an alliance, not for territorial aggrandize- 
ment, or the suppression of freedom in any quarter 
of the globf', but an alliance for the spread of that 
jurisprudence which everywhere makes for order, 



progress and liberty ; — an alliance that will promote 
the establishment of God's Kingdom on earth by 
tlie diffusion of God's justice throughout the world. 
(Loud applause.) 

Mr. Root : Gentlemen, I give you the profes- 
sion upon which our friend is about to enter, and I 
couple with this toast the name of an honored mem- 
ber of this Club who has had a most distinguished 
career in the forefront of American diplomacy, as 
Ambassador of the United States to the Republic of 
France, as special Ambassador of the United States 
upon the occasion of the Queen's Jubilee in Eng- 
land, and as a member of the Peace Commission 
which negotiated the treaty with Spain, just ratified 
by the American Senate — the Hon. Whitelaw Reid. 
(Applause.) 



SPEECH OF MR. REID. 

Mr. President, I am not here to make a speech. 
If I were, I should remain silent before the Gov- 
ernor of my State; I should remain silent before 
this older and better soldier [turning to Gov. Mor- 
ton at his sidel in the field to which you assign me ; 
I should remain silent before all these gentlemen 
whom I see ranged along the platform, eager to 
speak. I ran awa}^ from another engagement, sim- 
ply to join in your congratulations and good wishes 
— nothing more. But entering this room and wit- 
nessing this extraordinary demonstration, I am re- 
minded of some small experiences and personal remi- 
niscences which to me are very agreeable. When 
I was first asked, many years ago, to undertake 
public service abroad, the offer came to me primarily 
from an eminent statesman, with whom the name 
and the work of your guest have been indissolubly 
associated through his whole professional life. 
When, some 3^ears later, I was able to accept another 
such offer, the first almost of those who were good 
enough to organize a small dinner here for me, by 
way of launching me safely out of the country, was 
your guest to-night. And to prove that he had no 
more ill-will in launching me out of the country 
than we manifest towards him now when we speed his 
parting, he was equally prompt in aiding to organize 
another dinner to welcome me back. It seems to be 
my turn now. 

He is going to a city which will thoroughly 
appreciate him and thoroughly enjoy him; and to a 



city which likewise he will thoroughly appreciate 
and enjoy. He is going to the real capital, if there 
is one, of the race to which we all belong — the race 
which girdles, and civilizes, and leads, if it does not 
rnle, the world. He will enjoy it ; but we shall enjoy 
it more. We shall be very proud of our Ambassa- 
dor there ; proud of him as a representative New 
Yorker, and prouder still as a worthy representa- 
tive of a continental republic. (Applause.) 

He will not find his bed all roses, nor his days 
all holidays. He will discover before long, if I am 
not greatly mistaken, or if his experience does not 
differ widely from that of those who have gone 
before him, that an Ambassador at that post who 
conscientiously discharges all his varied duties, and, 
above all, strives to satisfy the varied wishes of the 
great American people, is simply the hardest-worked 
and worst-paid servant in that whole big city. And 
yet there are people who like it ! He will like it. 
He will fill the place on all its sides and will adorn 
it. I congratulate you on the Ambassador you are 
sending out, and congratulate equally the country 
that sends him and the country to which he is sent. 
I predict for him a brilliant career and a most useful 
one, and 1 heartily wish it for him ; and I join with 
you all — and with this I shall close, since I ought 
not to speak at all in advance of these others — I join 
most heartily in your good-byes and God speed. 
(Applause.) 

Mr. Root: Now, gentlemen, the concluding 
toast of the evening will be fittingly the toast that 



comes home to our own State — the State of New 
York — of our Ambassador's home and our home, 
and with that I couple the name, the unknown 
name of Theodore Roosevelt. (Cheers and applause.) 



SPEECH OF GOV. ROOSEVELT. 

Mr. President and gentlemen : When our host 
spoke with such just eulogy of the Anglo-Saxon 
race, I could not help turning to Mr. Cockran and 
asking him on our joint behalf where the Dutch 
and Irish come in. I think that our presence here 
to-night emphasizes just what he meant, that those 
who belong to the English-speaking race by adop- 
tion, by spirit, by the inheritance of common ideas 
and common aspirations, have the right to hail the 
renewed friendship between the English-speaking 
people of the British Isles and the English-speaking 
people of this great continent exactly as have any 
of those whose forefathers came over in the " May- 
flower" or first settled on the banks of the James ; 
and when our Ambassador goes to England I know 
he will remember not only the facts that have been 
put before you in the magnificent oratory of Mr. 
Cockran to-night, but one other fact, something 
that supplements what Mr. Cockran said. Mr. 
Cockran did well to dwell upon the place that has 
been won by the great qualities of the English- 
speaking peoples ; he did well to dwell iipon 
how much we have owed to the feats of the great 
captains of industry, to the feats of the men of 
letters, of the men of law. But the Ambassador 
will also remember how much has been owing to 
the men who carried the sword. I see here in the 
audience before me many men who either wear, or 
could if they chose wear, the button that shows 
that they fought in the most righteous war of 



modern times ; and the statesmanship of Abraham 
Lincoln would have come to naught had it not been 
for the soldiership of G-rant, Sherman and Sheridan, 
of Thomas and of Farragut. (Applause.) 

There have been other races as great in war as 
the English-speaking people, but they have not been 
as great in peace. There have been other races as 
great in peace but they have not shown themselves 
as great in war. The great point in the up-building 
of the so-called Anglo-Saxon people (I am unable 
to go into the nice ethnic distinction that would 
make of Olive, of Wellington, and Nelson, Normans 
— I much doubt whether Washington, and Andrew 
Jackson, and Grant, and Phil Sheridan, were Nor- 
mans), but the great point in the up-building of the 
English-speaking peoples, in the up-building of our 
own nation has been that, together with the love for 
peace has gone the ability to carry on war ; that 
with the love for letters, with the love of orderly 
obedience to law, has gone the capacity to stand up 
stoutly for the right when menaced by anj' foreign 
foe. (Applause.) And the Ambassador will go to 
England holding his head the higher, not only be- 
cause he goes from a land that has won such 
triumphs of peace ; not only because he goes from a 
land that has added to the reputation of the jurist 
of the world because it has produced men like him- 
self ; that has added to the oratory of the world by 
the presence in it of men like yourself, Mr. Cockran, 
but he will go holding his head the higher because 
Dewey's guns thundered at Manila and the Spanish 



ships were sunk off Santiago Bay. (Applause.) 
All honor to the men of peace ; and all honor also 
to the race that has shown thatbesid.es men of peace 
it can in time of need bring forth men who are 
mighty in battle. (Applause.) 

I feel that this Club has a peculiar right to 
pride itself ui)on sending Mr. Choate as Ambassador, 
because Mr. Choate stands as the architype of the 
kind of American citizenship which this club prides 
itself upon having produced. The greatest master 
of the English, language that the world has ever 
seen ; the writer with the keenest insight into 
human nature that any writer has had since the 
days of Holy Writ, has stated to mankind as his 
advice, "Above all to thine own self be true Thou 
can'st not then be false to any man." Mr. Choate 
has stated that he will come back as he goes, a good 
American, and we do not need the assurance, for he 
could come back nothing else. (Applause.) The 
first requisite in the statesmanship that shall benefit 
mankind, so far as we are concerned, is that that 
statesmanship shall be thoroughl}'- American. No 
American statesman who forgot to be first and fore- 
most an American was ever yet able to do anything 
to benefit the world as a whole. Tlie woi'ld moves 
upward as a whole by means of the jjeople who 
make the different countries of the world move up- 
ward ; the man who lifts America higher, b}^ jnst so 
much makes higher the civilization of all mankind. 

Now Mr. Choate has here in our life done the 
two cardinal duties of minding his own business 



well and also minding the business of the State. 
Neither will do by itself. We do not wish the aid 
of those excellent j^eople who can manage the 
affairs of other people but not their own. (Laughter.) 
Nor yet of those who are content to benetit them- 
selves but to leave tlie work of the State undone. 
The great note in the work that has been done by 
this Club has been the note of disinterested labor 
for the common good by men who have shown that 
they could take care of their own affairs. In the 
presence of Mr. Choate, in the presence of our host 
of the evening, of Mr. Root, I wish to pay a brief 
tribute on behalf of those men who have held pub- 
lic office, to the disinterested labor and assistance 
given by those men who have not held public office 
and who gave their labor wholly without hope of 
reward. You, all of you, here who have been Mr. 
Choate's lifelong friends, who have known him inti- 
mately, know that there has never been a movement 
for the betterment of America, a movement to bet- 
ter our State or our social life, an effort to make our 
politics more honest, more straightforward, more 
representative of the best hoj)e and thought of the 
community, in which you have not been able to 
count npon the generous and disinterested assist- 
ance of Mr. Choate. I myself know well what I 
owe to Mr. Choate ; and I know you will not think 
that I wander from our subject of this evening when 
I say that I appreciate to the full the way in which 
l)oth Mr. Choate and Mr. Root have helped me 
when I have needed to draw ui^on all that I could 



draw upon in the way of intelligence and disinter- 
ested interest in the public good. It is a peculiar 
pleasure to see a man who has served the State so 
disinterestedly, with such genuine ability and with- 
out the least idea of reward in the way of office, 
chosen to till one of the most honorable offices in 
the land, not because he has sought it (for it came 
to him before he had a chance to seek it), but be- 
cause of the sentiment of the people that they wished 
at this time to be represented by one of those men 
who make all of us proud of being Americans. (Ap- 
plause.) And we may well feel satisfied, not merely 
with having Mr. Choate as Ambassador, but with 
the political conditions which have rendered it jios- 
sible, in choosing the man who should represent us 
to a country with which we have the closest and 
most intimate ties of blood and of friendship, to pay 
heed solely to the eminent fitness of the man him- 
self, and to the worth of the spirit which he has so 
nobly rei^resented. (Applause.) 



Mr. Root : Gentlemen, may I have your atten- 
tion for a moment while I read a telegram from one 
of the guests of the evening who had accepted our 
invitation ; a telegram from Philadelphia. " Train 
delayed renders my presence impossible. Convey 
to the Committee my deep regrets and to the distin- 
guished guest ray hearty felicitations. Thomas C. 
Piatt." (Applause.) 

And now I read as the closing sentiment of con- 
gratulation and felicitation to our friend, the words 
of a letter from the ArchbishojD of New York, Arch- 
bishop Corrigan, who is absent in Florida, in re- 
sponse to an invitation to be present : "I specially 
regret my absence from home at this time as it 
would have been a great pleasure to join with the 
Club in testifying respect and admiration for the 
gentleman whose splendid attainments have called 
him to represent his native country at the most dis- 
tinguished Court in the world ; for whom his many 
friends will cordially wish that his successes in diplo- 
macy may be as brilliant as his achievements at the 
Bar, and that his home-coming may be in safety, in 
health and in joy." (Applause.) 

Now, gentlemen, I ask you to rise and to drink 
standing and in silence to the memory of the de- 
parted Chief Magistrate of our Sister Republic, 
called away untimely by Providence from the 
leadership of that great nation in its hour of diffi- 
culty and danger ; a Chief Magistrate who illus- 
trated the virtues of the French people, ever true to 
the principles of liberty ; deplored alike by his own 



people and by all lovers of liberty the world over ; 
in sympathy with the people of our sister Repnblic 
and in sad memory of Felix Faure. 

The toast was drunk standing and in silence. 

Mr. Root : (Turning to Mr. Choate.) And now, 
old friend, good-bye ; au revoir. 



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